I go through phases when it comes to cooking. There was a week that all I cook was Indian and the other was Italian. As evident on my blog lately, I have been enjoying way too much of Thai cooking. I think it has something to do with the fact that we were gifted with some homegrown bird’s eye chillies. 
When I seek inspiration on chicken recipes on pinterest (you can check out my pin boards @fussfreecooking), it came to my realisation that I have a weakness of chicken with sweet, savoury, dark and sticky exterior. Not only they look finger lickin’ good on the photos, I enjoy the taste as much as its’ visual.
This Thai-style garlic chicken is a really simple recipe which I have found on Super Food Ideas – Super Savers – a recipe booklet which I have acquired some time ago. It has everything I love in a recipe – simple cooking process but complex in flavours. I love garlic. I love chilli. I love sweet, savoury and glossy glaze. I love fresh coriander. Imagine these mix of flavours together with a bowl of hot and steamy rice. Oh boy, there is no words!
Thai-Style Garlic Chicken
(adapted from Super Food Ideas – Super Savers with minor tweaks)
Serves 2
What you’ll need:-
- 500g chicken tenderloins (or chicken breasts or thigh fillets), trimmed & cut into 2cm pieces
- 4 garlic cloves, peeled & grated
- 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
- Juice from 1 lime (or lemon)
- 1 tbsp freshly grinded black pepper
- 1 tsp salt
- A handful of fresh coriander leaves, roughly chopped
- 1 cucumber, halved & sliced
- 1 bird’s eye chilli, finely sliced
- steamed rice and fresh coriander leaves, to serve
plus 1 hour of marination time (if time permits)
Method:-
Combine chicken, garlic, brown sugar, lime juice, salt and pepper in a glass or ceramic bowl. Toss to combine. Refrigerate, covered, for 1 hour, if time permits. Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat. Cook chicken, in batches, stirring for 5 minutes or until cooked through. (I did mine over two batches). Set the chicken aside on a plate. Pour the leftover marinade into the pan and cook over low-medium heat until boiling and continue to reduce the sauce until thickens and becomes a glaze. Transfer the chicken pieces back into the pan together with chopped coriander and sliced chilli. Toss to combine until the chicken pieces are well-coated with the sauce, coriander and chilli.
To serve, spoon rice into bowls. Top with chicken, pan juices, cucumber and coriander. Serve immediately.
Oooo, this looks tasty! And so simple. Pinned!
This was a perfect dish to make on a hot summer day. I made it last night and the kids loved it. I used half a pepper to make it more to the taste of my 3 year-old. We’ll def have this one again. Thanks for sharing.
My wife is our chef in the house(of course). It is her birthday and I planned to have a surprise dinner date to her. I cooked this and hope that the result is great. And she was happy and said “I’m glad you cooked well”. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
What a fantastic dish. Never used Bird’s Eye chili before but love the heat; hot but not overwhelming!
Thanks for sharing!
I’ve never seen a birdseye chili. What can I substitute?
Hi Teri,
Any fresh red chilli will do the trick!